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Monday, September 29, 2014

For almost 20 years, the gun ban lobby has complained that the NRA has shut down funding for so-called "gun violence research" that would supposedly give us the data we need to reduce crime committed with a firearm. NPR reports this morning that taxpayer money has started flowing again to such activity:

...But to start with, the CDC has begun offering more than $7 million in grants to states to expand the agency's National Violent Death Reporting System. The hope is that will also capture more data on firearm fatalities.

While the taxpayers may not have been funding research, that doesn't mean there hasn't been any research. Dr. John Lott released a study on the subject in February of 2014 and noted:

There is no evidence that gun control research fell when restrictions were put on federally funded research. Indeed, whether one looks at the number of total articles or total pages, firearms research has been as high or higher than when the restrictions were enacted. In 2013, well before federal funding could have any impact on publications, there was an explosion in firearms research in medical journals.

Unfortunately, when the taxpayers fund research, the money goes to support data that leads to gun ban proposals.